Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 14 APRIL 8, 2014 P27 cause it seems to be the future. I think it is a good solution and it was important that we [Alstare] entered World Superbike as an official team, not as privateers. We would not have been inter- ested in being privateers. The Bimota EVO bike is the same price as the Kawasaki and BMW EVO bikes and I think that we can produce about 20 EVO bikes this year and that means that custom- ers will have more choice if they want to go racing in the EVO class next year. These bikes will all be built in our workshops in Bel- gium, which will be the race de- partment for all Bimota racebikes - Superbikes, Moto2 or whatever. Our intention is to produce racing spares and other such parts and look after customers who want to race Bimota worldwide." Gordon Ritchie THE RED TIDE ADVANCES T he big winners, in terms of sheer performance and im- age rebuilding at the recent World Superbike tests in Jerez, Spain, were dressed in Ducati red. Davide Giugliano, who has been fast in previous tests at the Spanish venue, even on his privateer Aprilia last year, was in storming form, beating the ex- isting track record set in 2013 by Eugene Laverty (on a factory Aprilia) by half a second. Giugliano almost got into the 1:39s with his 1:40.166 lap time, using the new Pirelli qualifying rear tire that most people – with the exception of his teammate Chaz Davies - thought was a real advancement. "The chassis of the bike is very good and at this moment I have no problems at a track like this," said Giugliano on the second day before a wet third day meant that nobody would go faster than him. "We've carried out many elec- tronic and suspension tests that have allowed me to achieve solid results on a track that wasn't in the best condition as far as grip was concerned. Now we have to see how things are at Aragon. But my bike is very good in the corners and this is the strong point. My race pace was also good here and we can keep our lap times. I used the new front tire from Pirelli and I like it, but I would like to have more time on it. For my style, the front tire is fundamental." Davies deemed this the most consistent and positive test he had ever had on his Ducati, and he took the chance to play with the set-up on his bike in some radical ways. He ended up fifth fastest over- all but was unable to improve on the new qualifier, which he felt affected his bike's feel. "We used everything we had in terms of tires; the new race tires and the Q. I don't know about other people, but we only had one of the new fronts, which I tried the first day, just in case it rained. I think it is positive from what I can feel of it, but having only one was not quite enough. The new Q… something did not feel quite right and it made the bike really heavy for me and I went a lot quicker on the old one. The grip was good on the new one, but it was a strange feel- ing. I do not think it is anything to do with our bike as it was a weird one. I could have been do- ing with another one just to make sure we do not have a problem. I wonder about the need of a new Q because who are we compet- ing against? The current Qs are already pretty good, they are not bad tires, so why put the devel- opment in that?" Gordon Ritchie Davide Giugliano was the fastest of the World Superbike testers at Jerez in Spain last week. FILE PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE

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